Pak seeks end to drone strikes
The bipartisan parliamentary panel on national security on Tuesday presented its recommendations at the joint session of the parliament on new terms of engagement with the United States that seek unconditional apology for NATO strikes on Pakistani border posts last November which killed 24 soldiers.

Explosions across Iraq kill 51
Baghdad, March 20
At least 27 bombs struck cities and towns across Iraq on Tuesday, killing at least 51 people and wounding nearly 250, despite a massive security clampdown ahead of next week's Arab League summit in Baghdad.

Policemen inspect the site of a car bomb explosion in Iraq on Tuesday.
— AFP

Hindu centre faces eviction in Putin’s hometown
Moscow, March 20
Russia's biggest Vedic culture centre boasting the largest Hindu temple in the region is facing eviction in a property dispute in St Petersburg, the hometown of Russian president-elect Vladimir
Putin.

Einstein — the scientist, dreamer and lover
Jerusalem, March 20
At speeds even he could barely imagine, Albert Einstein's private papers and innermost thoughts will soon be available online, from a rare scribble of "E=mc2" in his own hand, to political pipe-dreams and secret love letters to his mistress.

France launches manhunt for Jewish gunman
Toulouse (France), March 20
France launched a massive manhunt today for a serial killer who gunned down three children and a teacher at a Jewish school, declaring a terror alert while the presidential campaign was put on hold.

The bipartisan parliamentary panel on national security on Tuesday presented its recommendations at the joint session of the parliament on new terms of engagement with the United States that seek unconditional apology for NATO strikes on Pakistani border posts last November which killed 24 soldiers.

It further asked for an end to US drone attacks in the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan.

Senator Mian Raza Rabbani presented the much-awaited report recommending that taxes and other charges must be levied while resuming NATO supplies which were halted after the attacks.

“All goods’ imports to or transiting through Pakistan must be taxed,” the report said.

Reiterating the country's commitment to the elimination of terrorism and combating extremism, the panel said Pakistan’s territory would not be allowed to be used for aggression or intervention in any other country. The report proposes that any consideration regarding the reopening of NATO supplies must be contingent upon a thorough revision of the terms and conditions of the arrangement including regulation and control of movement of goods and personnel which will be subject to strict monitoring within Pakistan on entry, transit and exit points.

Rabbani said the parliamentarians will hold threadbare discussion on the recommendations to make the foreign policy more vibrant and in accordance with the aspirations of the people. The joint session was adjourned till March 26.

The government has promised to allow threadbare deliberations on the committee’s recommendations and formulate foreign policy options including terms of re-engagement with the US on the basis of final draft approved by the joint session. This is the first time the parliament has been involved in foreign policy formulation against past practice of the security establishment having the final say.

The committee has prepared a series of recommendations to ensure the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the country.

Enumerating the salient features of the report on national security, Raza Rabbani said the committee, in its recommendations, has asserted that the country’s sovereignty will not be compromised at any cost and the relationship with the US should be based on mutual respect for the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of each other.

It said no overt or covert operations inside Pakistan will be tolerated.

The recommendations ask the government to ensure that the principles of an independent foreign policy incorporate strict adherence to the principles of policy as stated in Article 40 of the constitution, the UN Charter and observance of international law.

The report says that the US must review its footprints in Pakistan and stop drone strikes inside the territorial borders of Pakistan. It calls for no hot pursuit or boots on Pakistani territory and the activity of foreign private security contractors be transparent and subject to Pakistani law.

The report emphasises that Pakistan's nuclear programme and assets including its safety and security cannot be compromised. The US-Indo civil nuclear agreement has significantly altered the strategic balance in the region. Therefore, Pakistan should seek from the US and others a similar treatment.

Condemning the Salala checkpost attack by NATO that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, the report termed the incident as a breach of international law which constitutes a blatant violation of Pakistan's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Any use of Pakistani bases or airspace by foreign forces would require parliamentary approval.

The report calls upon the Ministry of Defence and NATO to draft new flying routes for areas contiguous to the border.

The recommendations emphasise upon the government, its ministries, autonomous bodies and other organisations not to enter into verbal agreement with any foreign government or authority.

The report said the international community should recognise Pakistan’s colossal human and economic losses and continued suffering due to the war on terror.

Greater market access of Pakistan’s exports to the US/NATO countries and global markets should be activity pursued, the report further said. In the battle for the hearts and minds, an inclusive process based on primacy of dialogue and reconciliation should be adopted, it went on to state. Such process must respect local customs, traditions, values and religious beliefs, it was further maintained.

parliamentary panel recommendations

The bipartisan parliamentary panel on national security has sought an end to US drone attacks in the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan.

All goods’ imports to or transiting through Pakistan must be taxed, the report further says.

The US-Indo civil nuclear agreement has significantly altered the strategic balance in the region, the panel’s report maintains. Pakistan should thus seek from the US and others a similar treatment, the report goes on to state.

Baghdad, March 20
At least 27 bombs struck cities and towns across Iraq on Tuesday, killing at least 51 people and wounding nearly 250, despite a massive security clampdown ahead of next week's Arab League summit in Baghdad.

It was Iraq's bloodiest day in nearly a month, and the scale of the coordinated explosions in more than a dozen cities showed an apparent determination by insurgents to prove that the government cannot keep the country safe ahead of the summit.

Iraq is due to host the meeting for the first time in 20 years and the government is anxious to show it can maintain security following the withdrawal of US troops in December.

"The goal of today's attacks was to present a negative image of the security situation in Iraq," government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told Reuters.
"Security efforts will be escalated to counteract terrorist groups' attacks and to fill loopholes used by them to infiltrate security, whether in Baghdad or other provinces."

"The security forces are stupid because they always gather at the site of an explosion and then a second explosion occurs. They become a target."

Blasts also struck in the capital, in Baiji, Baquba, Daquq, Dibis, Dhuluiya, Kirkuk, Mosul, Samarra, Tuz Khurmato and Dujail to the north, in Falluja and Ramadi to the west, and Hilla, Latifiya, Mahmudiya and Mussayab to the south. Police defused bombs in Baquba, Falluja and
Mosul.

Most of the blasts targeted police checkpoints and patrols.

"This latest spate of attacks is very likely to have been co-ordinated by a large and well-organised group. It is likely an attempt to show the authorities that their security measures are insignificant," said John Drake, a senior risk consultant at AKE Group, which studies security in Iraq for corporate clients.

Army and police forces are frequently targeted in Iraq, where bombings and shootings still occur almost daily.

Al Qaeda's Iraq wing and related Sunni Muslim insurgent groups say that despite the withdrawal of US forces, they will not lay down arms and will continue to battle the Shi'ite-led government. They have claimed responsibility for nearly all the major attacks so far this year.

Although overall violence has declined since the height of sectarian fighting in 2006 and 2007, Iraqis fear their government lacks the wherewithal to impose security nine years after the US-led invasion that overthrew Saddam Hussein.

Tuesday's attacks were the biggest since Feb. 23 when dozens of explosions across the country killed at least 60 people.
— Reuters

Moscow, March 20
Russia's biggest Vedic culture centre boasting the largest Hindu temple in the region is facing eviction in a property dispute in St Petersburg, the hometown of Russian president-elect Vladimir Putin.

The owners of the eight storey building who had leased it for 49-years to local Centre for Spiritual Development — "Another World" — want to terminate the deal and have managed to seek court's order for its eviction for allegedly violating the fire safety rules.

However, the upper court of arbitration has stayed the eviction till March 29 on the appeal of the centre.

Chairman of the Centre Suren Karapetyan insisted that the Vedic culture centre involved in promoting the ancient Indian traditions including Sanskrit and Yoga studies among the local followers of Hinduism, had not violated fire safety rules at any point of the 49-year lease.

"We are talking about the threat of destruction of one of the largest Hindu Temple and the most unique cultural project, promoting Indian culture in Russia - St Petersburg," Karapetyan said.

Karapetyan said at the time of lease, the building was nothing, but a block of bricks and the devotees had completed its construction by collecting $1 million donation and through 'shramdaan' (voluntary labour).

Lease deal was signed in 1992 between the state-run federal research institute, now converted into into JSC "GosNIIkhimanalit" Joint Stock Company. "This could be the part of the anti-Hindu campaign by a section of Russian Orthodox Christian Church zealots, after their demand to seek the ban on the Bhagwad Gita, otherwise I don't understand the move for premature termination of the lease," Karapetyan said over phone.

Karapetyan said a letter requesting his intervention was sent to PM Putin in January, when the new Director of the institute wanted to convert the leased building into a profitable business centre and hinted one of their board members was "a close relative of Putin". The appeal was signed by thousands of St Petersburg residents. The St Petersburg-based Indian community members, including diplomats are frequent visitors to the temple situated on one of the floors of the building in a 500 square metre hall, which accommodates up to 700 people during festival times.
— PTI

Jerusalem, March 20
At speeds even he could barely imagine, Albert Einstein's private papers and innermost thoughts will soon be available online, from a rare scribble of "E=mc2" in his own hand, to political pipe-dreams and secret love letters to his mistress.

Fifty-seven years after the Nobel Prize-winning physicist's death, the Israeli university which he helped found, opened Internet access on Monday to some of the 80,000 documents Einstein bequeathed to it in his will.

It will go on adding more at <http://alberteinstein.info> and in time, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem says it is committed to digitising its entire Einstein archive.

Among items likely to attract popular attention is a very rare manuscript example of the formula the author of the theory of relativity proposed in 1905, E=mc2, where energy, E, equals mass times c, the speed of light in a vacuum, squared. Once published, a cache of two dozen love letters to the woman who would become his second wife, but written while he was still married to his first, may also attract the curious.

So too may an idealistic proposal in 1930 for a "secret council" of Jews and Arabs to bring peace to the Middle East. At present, only a selection of documents dating from before 1923, when Einstein was 44, are available. As papers are scanned, the bulk of them in Einstein's native German, the university will publish English translations and notes, said Hanoch Gutfreund, whose committee oversees the archive.

"This is going to be not only something to satisfy the curiosity of the curious," he said. "But it also will be a great education and research tool for academics."

Some items, he acknowledged, were so personal that the archivists weighed carefully whether make them public. Among these are 24 love letters the scientist wrote to his cousin, Elsa Einstein, with whom he conducted an affair for several years before finally divorcing his first wife, Mileva Maric, and remarrying in 1919.
— Reuters

the other dimension

Among items likely to attract popular attention is a very rare manuscript example of the formula the author of the theory of relativity proposed in 1905, E=mc2

These are also 24 love letters the scientist wrote to his cousin, Elsa Einstein, with whom he had an affair for several years before finally divorcing his first wife, Mileva Maric, and remarrying in 1919

The scientist, who quit Nazi Germany for the United States, long supported the Jewish community in Palestine

Toulouse (France), March 20
France launched a massive manhunt today for a serial killer who gunned down three children and a teacher at a Jewish school, declaring a terror alert while the presidential campaign was put on hold.

With a grieving nation in shock, President Nicolas Sarkozy ordered a minute's silence to be observed in all schools today and suspended his re-election campaign until at least tomorrow.

French Interior Minister Claude Gueant admitted that police do not know the identity of the cold-blooded killer behind three deadly attacks in eight days, but quoted a witness as saying the attacker had worn a video camera.